The Anationalist Eugène Lanti

Toño del Barrio

The name of Eugène Lanti is barely known outside of the realm of Esperanto-speakers – perhaps only in literary circles and by chance: the appearance of his name in the novel Rayuela ("Hopscotch") by Julio Cortázar or in biographies of George Orwell (both of which will be discussed in more detail).

Yet he is a very interesting personality in his own right. Lanti was the co-founder and the most important leading figure in the World Anational Association, or to use its original Esperanto name, the "Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda" (SAT), the Esperantist workers’ association. He was also the theoretician of a new doctrine, anationalism, which aimed to eliminate the very concept of the nation as a guiding idea of social organisation.

Lanti’s true name was Eugène Adam. He was born in a small village in Normandy in 1879. The son of poor peasants, he moved to Paris, where he earned his living as a manual labourer.

In his youth he was much influenced by anarchist ideas, and he was relatively active in the milieu that advocated them. He has contacts with such exponents of French anarchist and radical theory as Faure, Ner or Barbusse.

During World War I he was mobilised and served as an ambulance driver, and that is where his revulsion in the face of war and nationalism became confirmed. These were the years in which he had his first contact with Esperanto and began to learn that language. At that time he also came into contact with communism, under the impression of the Russian Revolution, as was frequently the case in that period.

When he returned to civilian life he got in touch with the Esperantist workers’ movement, which had just gotten up and running in the years before the war, but was still disorganised. In 1919 he was chosen to be the editor of the bulletin of the French association, Le Travailleur Esperantiste, where he first demonstrated his literary talent and capabilities.